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Sooooo.... you're saying the Red Sox DON'T suck at hockey? Pretty sure the Maple Leaf do...

Price is one of my lesser worries on this staff. The real Rick Porcello is a bigger question mark. Is he really now a Cy Young caliber arm? Was this his one good season? My thoughts are he won't repeat. And instead he'll fall back somewhere in between 2015 and 2016. Given the vastness of that grey area, that's a crazy safe predictions. I do think he can and will be closer to 2016. But it wouldn't surprise me if that was wrong, either...

Pomeranz looks ready to break that streak.

Not that the Sox could or should get him, but I can't help but wonder why the Angels don't trade this guy. As awesome as he is, the Angels are still not only a bad team, but their farm system is so devoid of talent, I think I'm listed as one of their top 20 prospects. So they have no one internally to build around Trout with, and next season his salary jumps to $34mill, or about 1/6 of the pre-tax limit. Meaning they will struggle to build around him with outside players, too. So one of potentially the best players ever might be doomed to the obscurity of this MLB doormat for a huge portion of his career when he could be traded for a fortune in rebuilding pieces. Is this a good non-move by the Angels?

Also, A.J. Pollock

The unfortunate list needs to include former Mariners' prospect Logan Bawcom ("Balk home")...

They both suck at hockey

I have to think Castillo's career in Boston is over. At his salary, the mere act of adding him to the 40-man roster pushes the Sox ip against the limit. His best hope is to be traded in a bad contract swap to a team that needs a CF (Mets?) and has a player on a short deal they want to move whose salary would pushthe Sox to or over the limit such thst the tax they paid would be less than tthey're paying Castillo (Jay Bruce?) This deal might have more potential if Bruce wasn't awful. ..

Originally drafted by the Red Sox. At least I know Alvarez, Belt (as a pitcher), and Grandal were...

"Chock" was a one-time typo for "choke" that became a running joke at BDC, which is a welcome carryover. Well done in that regard, slash.

In the case of Batter X, you are talking anout one season worth of data broken down into small sample sizes. With post-season data, many look at it as one collective sample size of a few games spread out over many years.In Price's case, that means lumping in 2008 and 2009 in with 2016 as if they are all equally relevant. That's a long time ago, and not much is the same about Price is the same now as it was then. He's more experienced now, but also probably less fit. But typically the conclusion is "can't handle the pressure", which is sn insanely premature jump. Of course Slasher's initial postulate was that Price was equal to Buchholz, which is laughable. Even if we ignore actual performance, Price gave the Sox over 200 IP last year, which has many positive effects. Buchholz didn't do that for Boston once in 10 seasons. And it's not like they were bad innings. Price was also excellent after a rough June. Sure he didn't deliver on some expectations that might have been unreasonable to begin with. But he was still very, very good with some room to grow. And why the label of Price as a failure due to one post-season start and the subsequent coronation of Sale as the savior Price needed to be? Exactly what is it about Sale and his zero post-season starts that makes someone think he will fill this void?

So his season needed to be judged on 3 arbitrarily chosen regular season games that were no more significant t hann any other game plus one post-season appearance? Was Pedro judged this way after the 2003 ALCS?

And we all saw that same pitcher give up 6 earned runs in 3 IP in game one of that same series. You don't get to pick snd choose your outings when trying to define an ace if you believe he has the ability to induce ground balls or strikeouts at will. If you like highlighting post-season success to define an ace, fine. But Price only pitchedone such game for Boston. And his pprevious games with other teams wind up being a small sample spread out over too much time to really draw any actual conclusions....

But in that big second inning, the only really hard hit ball was that home run by Chisenhall that would have been a loud foul in 29 other ballparks. ...

Price was ine of the 10 best pitchers in the AL. If his post-season troubles are attributable to anything, it's probably that he throws over 200 IP every year and is more worn out come October. ...

The playoff dud game wasn't even all bad. He came out in the first inning and started by making the Guardians look bad. That one pitch to Chisenhall and a quick hook made the outing look much worse...

First of all, Price had a very good year last year. Don't kid yourself. Easily I might have been the biggest Buchholz supporter at BDC, but even I know Clay's career years don't equal Price's "bad: ones..

Yes a one post-season gsme sample size should be adequate. .

Other than both being Major League pitchers, I don't see much else in common between the two...

Beltre was the biggest mistake to let walk. In another universe, keeping Beltre might have meant not trading for Gonzalez, which could have meant keeping Rizzo. Also , Beltre has largely been flat out awesome, outside of his propensity for destroying left fielders....

Not hard to find, but you do have to look. Even the Cubs used 9 different starters last year, although many for just one game. But they had an unreliable level of health among there starters. The AL East champion Red Sox used 9 starters for multiple games each...

Depending on whom you choose to believe, one of either Pomeranz (bullpen) or Rodriguez (AAA) is not likely to make the rotation. If healthy, there seems to be very little talk of Wright to the bullpen. And therereally sshouldn't be if he's healthy. He had a great run last year, and knucklers make for risky relievers...

There are a few guys who might take minor league deals. Really my only hope is they are better than Owens, Johnson and Elias. If they aren't, no harm done. Some names off the top of my head, none of which are very sexy, include Dillon Gee, Lucas Harrell, Bud Norris, and Trevor Cahill. There might even be better options than these. I was a little disappointed that Rubby De La Rosa took a minor league deal elsewhere, but maybe staying with Arizona was a priority for him...

While i definitely see the merits of starting Rodriguez in AAA, Peter Abraham had written a while bsck thay the Sox might start the season with Pomeranz in the bullpen to reduce his workload after such a drastic increase last season. If he is right, Barnes becomes the odd man out as he is thr only reliever with an option left. The Sox do have 5 relievers on the 40-man roster who are not likely to make the 25-man rroster, which, if they are joined by Barnes and barring injury, is decent depth for April. They do only have 3 starters in the same boat, which is not much. Putting ERod in AAA decreases the bullpen depth but increases the starter depth, although gives an interesting position that the Sox have 4 MLB-ready pitchers in Pawtucket that are all left-handed. I'd like another MLB-ready starter in any case. Soxprospects list only 4 starters in Pawtucket, one br ing some guy named Scott Haviland that I know nothing about. If Barnes is in Boston, maybe a bullpen arm for depth is a good idea.

Not wild about that idea. The guy is like 44 years old...